Tag: Eto’o

Former Cameroon captain Samuel Eto’o joined the 13th club of his long career when he signed for Qatar Sports Club on a free transfer, days after leaving Turkish club Konyaspor by mutual consent.

The Doha-based club announced the signing on Twitter, saying the 37-year-old would be unveiled later on Tuesday.

Eto’o, a four-time African footballer of the year, becomes the latest big-name arrival to join the Qatar Stars League after ex-Spain international Xavi and former Netherlands playmaker Wesley Sneijder.

He played with Xavi at Barcelona and Sneijder at Inter Milan, winning the Champions League with both teams.

Eto’o is Cameroon’s all-time leading goalscorer with 56 goals and twice an African Cup of Nations winner.

Former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto’o on Wednesday signed a contract with Turkish top-flight club Konyaspor after parting ways with Antalyaspor.

“Eto’o is a very important player in the world and in Turkey. We are happy to see him in Konyaspor,” Konyaspor president Fatih Yilmaz said.

The 36-year-old former Cameroon international, who joined Antalyaspor in 2015 after a short spell in Italy with Sampdoria, signed an 18-month contract with Konyaspor.

The two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner enjoyed five hugely successful seasons with Barcelona from 2004 to 2009, winning two Champions League titles and three La Liga crowns before departing for Inter Milan, where he had more success under Jose Mourinho.

Eto’o helped Inter team win the treble of Champions League, Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in his first season in Italy before moving to Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala in 2011.

He also had brief stints at Chelsea and Everton in the Premier League.

Egypt have won the competition a record seven times, including three in a row between 2006 and 2010. Cameroon and Ghana are the next most successful nations with four titles each.

Fourteen nations have won the Africa Cup at least once and eight of them, Algeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Tunisia, will be in Gabon.

Goals have been scarce in recent finals with the last five producing three 1-0 scorelines and two 0-0 stalemates. The drawn deciders were won by Zambia and Ivory Coast after penalty shootouts.

Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o holds the overall individual scoring record with 18 goals while the nine of Congolese Ndaye Mulamba is the highest in a tournament and the five of the late Ivorian Laurent Pokou the most in a match.

Retired pair Rigobert Song of Cameroon and Hossam AHassan of Egypt share the record for Cup of Nations tournament appearances with eight each between 1996 and 2010.

Spanish prosecutors have recommended that Cameroonian football great Samuel Eto’o be handed a 10-year jail sentence and pay a staggering 18-million-euro ($19 million) fine, a court filing revealed on Thursday.

The prosecutor alleges that Eto’o set up a series of front companies to avoid paying taxes during his decade of soccer success in Spain’s La Liga where he notably fronted Barcelona’s attack.

The main charges focus on a company Eto’o allegedly established in 2006 to hide his image rights, hiding some 4 million euros from tax authorities.

“The footballer pretended he had ceded his rights to two other companies in Hungary and Spain so as to fraudulently avoid paying taxes,” the prosecutor told AFP.

With interest charges and fines the prosecutor insists Eto’o, now at Antalyaspor in Turkey, should pay 18 million euros.

A prison sentence of 18 months for the original fraud established in 2006 is supplemented for three years jail for each subsequent year the fraud continued.

The recommendations of the prosecutor are made public in Spain before a trial actually begins and no trial date has yet been set in this case.

Lionel Messi and Neymar, two current Barcelona stars, have also recently been investigated and prosecuted for tax evasion.

Former Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o was recalled by Turkish side Antalyaspor on Sunday after being dropped for allegedly accusing the club leadership of racism on social media.

Club chairman Ali Safak Ozturk said the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea star had been forgiven after expressing regret for the remarks.

Antalyaspor will need all of the 35-year-old striker’s skill and experience to improve their current predicament, which sees them parked at the bottom of the Super Lig with just two points from six games.

Eto’o was included in the side to face Galatasaray in Istanbul on Sunday, coming on as a substitute in the 29th minute.

Antalyaspor took an early first-half lead and Eto’o had a goal disallowed. But one goal from Galatasaray’s Selcuk Inan and two late strikes from former German international Lukas Podolski gave the hosts a 3-1 win.

The big-spending club had hoped for far better when they signed Eto’o in June 2015 as the keystone of their bid to find national and even European success for the southern Mediterranean resort city.

After criticism of his own performance, Eto’o had written on his Instagram account last month that “some people do not feel respect for me because I am black.”

This was seen by many as a dig at Antalyaspor chairman Ozturk and Eto’o was dropped from the team and told to train alone.

The chairman said that Eto’o had expressed regret over the posting and had insisted it was not aimed against the club leadership. “We have taken him back into the team again.”

He said that racism was a grave accusation and Eto’o needed to be more careful in the future.

“These are very important issues not just for this player but players across the world,” he said, quoted by Turkish media. “We think our player will behave more carefully and make a contribution to the team.”

However the team’s latest defeat and risk of relegation will raise new questions over the future of Eto’o and Portuguese coach Jose Morais, a former assistant to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

Turkish top flight club Antalyaspor said on Wednesday that their star striker Samuel Eto’o would be left out of the squad until further notice in a bitter row over comments on social media.

Former Cameroon international Eto’o, who in a glittering career has turned out for Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea, had written on his Instagram account he was not being given respect for his achievements as he is black.

Eto’o had moved to Antalyaspor in June 2015 as the keystone of the club’s bid in the southern Mediterranean resort city to find national and even European success.

But his stint has turned sour in the past weeks amid intense rumours in the close season Eto’o would join Istanbul arch rivals Besiktas.

Tensions have been compounded by a dreadful start to the new season which has seen Antalyaspor reap just one point from four matches.

Eto’o had written on his Instagram account in Turkish: “Reminder — perhaps some people do not feel respect for me because I am black.”

“But I am not going to come down from the level I have reached. I have been in this game for 18 years,” he added, posting a screenshot from Wikipedia of all the cups he has won.

Eto’o did not specify to whom he was targeting his criticism but later posted another message insisting it was not directed at Antalyaspor chairman Ali Safak Ozturk.

But Antalyaspor said in a terse statement on its website that a meeting of its board had decided to leave Eto’o out of the squad until further notice.

Turkish commentators had interpreted the remarks of Eto’o as a response to apparent criticism by Ali Safak Ozturk of his performance in the early season.

“No player is above the interests of Antalyaspor. Everyone must know their place,” the chairman was quoted as saying.

Turkey is the latest stop in Eto’o’s eclectic career which has taken him to high-profile and lesser known football hotspots around the world.

He played between 2011-2013 for Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala in the Caucasus region of Dagestan before the owner pulled the plug on its ambitions.